130 LUTHER BURBANK 



PROPAGATION or THE SPINELESS OPUNTIAS 



It should be understood that the new varieties 

 of Opuntias, while as a whole they may be re- 

 garded as constituting a new species, are indi- 

 vidually comparable to the different recognized 

 varieties of any given orchard fruit, like the best 

 apples, or pears, or plums. 



That is to say, they may be indefinitely propa- 

 gated by division, and all the plants grown from 

 the original individuals will retain the essential 

 characteristics of the original. But, like apples, 

 ipears, and plums, they cannot be depended on to 

 transmit their best characteristics unvaryingly 

 from the seed. 



With the new Opuntias, as with the orchard 

 fruits and so many cultivated plants, the various 

 hereditary factors are blended in more or less 

 unstable combinations, and this instability 

 will be revealed in the offspring grown from 

 the seed. 



So the recognized method of propagating the 

 Opuntias is to plant a slab, and to let this serve 

 as the foundation from which roots and branches 

 will grow. The slabs that develop on each plant 

 may of course be similarly cut off and planted, 

 so that a large territory may be rapidly covered 

 with cactus plants, all precisely like the original. 



